Kamal Ghorui
Paramount Skydance has made another offer to acquire Warner Bros Discovery (WB). The company has revised its bid by adding a $2.8 billion payment to Netflix if the deal falls through. The company, led by Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s son, David Ellison, has also promised to make quarterly shareholder payments that increase each quarter after January 1, 2027, only if the deal does not close. This comes after Paramount made a hostile takeover bid to acquire WB after the company’s board rejected its offer and recommended that shareholders stick to Netflix’s offer. In December 2025, the streaming giant placed a bid to acquire WB and its assets for nearly $82 billion. The cash offer remains at $30 per share. Still, the new terms include a quarterly payment of 25 cents per share to shareholders, which Paramount said would be worth about $650 million and would remove Warner’s $1.5 billion financing cost tied to its debt exchange offer.
According to an LA Times report, the changes may not convince WBD’s board, which has backed a competing offer from Netflix. The report claims that Paramount sent the updated offer to the WBD board and said it was willing to continue talks.Paramount said the company would help Warner refinance its $15 billion bridge loan. The revised offer is funded by $43.6 billion in equity from the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners, plus $54 billion in debt from Apollo, Bank of America, and Citigroup. The offer also includes a personal guarantee of $43.3 billion from David Ellison’s father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
What Paramount CEO David Ellison said about the new WBD offer
As per the report, Ellison said the new additions to Paramount’s bid “underscore our strong and unwavering commitment to delivering the full value [Warner Bros. Discovery] shareholders deserve for their investment.”“We are making meaningful enhancements — backing this offer with billions of dollars, providing shareholders with certainty in value, a clear regulatory path, and protection against market volatility,” he said in a statement.
What Warner Bros said about Paramount’s latest offer
Warner Bros has confirmed that it has received Paramount’s new offer. In a recent statement, the company said that it would “carefully review and consider” the revised bid.However, the WB board is “not modifying its recommendation” regarding its agreement to sell its studios, HBO, and HBO Max to Netflix and has advised shareholders not to take “any action at this time” on Paramount’s offer.
